Monday, November 23, 2015

It's Summer and It's Snowing!!!

Luke said the only thing he really wants for Christmas is candy and letters!! If you want to send him a card or letter he'd LOVE it! Thanks to those who have sent cards and letters, I know a lot of you have and he'll be thrilled to receive them!! If you want to send a card/letter it is $1.20 in postage for a regular size card/letter envelope. Here's his address.... As always, thanks for your love and support!!!

Elder Lucas Christensen

Peru Huancayo Mission

Jiron Cusco #278

Huancayo Junin Peru

Hey there everyone!!

I have had a crazy week!! I have seen some small miracles and one made me thing about Marci (my aunt). So I really have been focusing on learning the lessons the past two weeks so I can teach and be fully effective. This week has been great here in Carhuamayo. The only thing I'm not liking is that it is always cold and i just don't want to be here for another 3 months, but it sounds like I am going to be staying here for another transfer. I feel like I'm never going to get warm!

I really want to come home sometimes, but then I reallize that I'm not doing this for me. This week I started to get really down on myself and I didn't want to talk to anyone. So when I got home to our house, I looked for Nick's letter, Kass´s letter and Kolt's letter that they all gave me the night before I left. I read them all, and really loved how those letters gave me a new perspective. I was really praying the night before because I needed some help. So I prayed the next morning and went and jumped in the shower and "ponderized" about how I am going to make it for two years. I came to a conclusion. If I can make it out of Carhuamayo I can make another 18 months or 19 and a half months. But, I really was trying to figure out how I can better my attitude. I was thinking for a long time, and something popped into my head, and it was something that I haven't thought about in years. I am purpously making this sentence longer to build suspense!!! ....... but I thought about when Nick was on his mission and his friend sent him and his other friends a quote about snowboarding. It was a quote by Connor Graff. It goes something like... all of the little jumps and bumps that they went off while snowboarding were just practices for the bigger kickers that lay ahead of them, and I related the little jumps to my trials in Carhuamayo and the rest of my mission, it's just building up for the bigger things in my life.

Another little thing that happened this week that was really cool... so me and my comp were going to go teach a lesson to this family of less actives, and no one was there but the kid and the mom. Well, the mom was having really bad troubles with her neck and body and it really made me think of the thing that is happening to Marci. I got my mom's letter about how Marci is still trying to recover from her neck stuff. So, we gave her a priesthood blessing and the spirit felt so amazingly strong! The next day we went to see how she was doing, because we were on our way to an investigators house, and she was working again, and said that she felt great. THE POWER OF THE PRIESTHOOD IS REEEEEAAAAALLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love it!!!!

We finally got to teach the shoe guy that I talked about a few weeks ago, and he said some pretty wierd things about his life, like how he was about to kill himself many times, it really was super sad. We have another lesson with him and his family on Wednesday at like 3:00 so hopefully it goes good. Yesterday I took a million pictures because it was snowing so hard for like 4 hours, (and yes, it's supposed to be summer) and then it got to like 100 degrees and all dried up. Pretty much just like Utah haha.

We jumped in a car and this guy was playing Pat Benatar, White Stripes and Eucalyptus, or whatever it's called. I tried not to listen because they are songs of the world, and I asked him to turn the radio off please, but he didn't understand when I spoke English to him, haha was a good ride though!! I now officialy weigh what I did in 9th grade. a solid 175 pounds and dropping. haha I am like a twig!! I feel like anyway!

Last night we went to a missionary thing for the Cerro de Pasco Stake, and these missonaries were showing mission pics, and I saw Zane Rigby in a pic!!! Really the familiar face was awesome!!!

One last thing ... I really want to go snowboarding!!!

love you all,

Elder Christensen

The view from Luke's balcony.

The village of Carhuamayo

The outside of Luke's "house". It snowed hard for 4 hours on Sunday and then cleared up, was hot and it all melted! It's Summertime in the Andes Mountains!!!

He said, "well, I guess we are now dentists", we seem to be advertising that we are anyway!

Luke's room .... looks better than I had imagined! He just can't get warm!

The outside of the LDS church in Carhuamayo.

Luke said, "This is our church, it's really kinda sad that that is the Lord's house with bars on the windows. The guy on the right is wearing a 'marijuana hat', best part is that he wore it to church yesterday!"